Gestalt Principles:

Origins

Gestalt theory first arose in 1890 as a reaction to the prevalent psychological theory of the time - atomism. Atomism examined parts of things with the idea that these parts could then be put back together to make wholes. Atomists believed the nature of things to be absolute and not dependent on context. Gestalt theorists, on the other hand, were intrigued by the way our mind perceives wholes out of incomplete elements "To the Gestaltists, things are affected by where they are and by what surrounds them...so that things are better described as "more than the sum of their parts."" Gestaltists believed that context was very important in perception. An essay by Christian von Ehrenfels discussed this belief using a musical example. Take a 12 note melody. Play it in one key, say the key of C. Now change to another key, say the key of A flat. There might not be any notes the same in the two songs, yet a person listening to it knows that it is the same tune. It is the relationships between the notes that give us the tune, the whole, not which notes make up the tune.

Gestalt Defined - A physical, biological, psychological, or symbolic configuration or pattern of elements so unified as a whole that its properties cannot be derived from a simple summation of its parts

Gestalt Principles:

Similarity | Proximity | Continuity

Similarity

The principle of similarity states that things which share visual characteristics such as shape, size, color, texture, value or orientation will be seen as belonging together.

In the above example, the two filled lines gives our eyes the impression of two horizontal lines, even though all the circles are equidistant from each other.

In the above example, the larger circles appear to belong together because of the similiarity in size.

Proximity or Contiguity

The principle of proximity or contiguity states that things which are closer together will be seen as belonging together.

Looking at the above picture, since the horizontal rows of circles are closer together than the vertical columns, we perceive two vertical lines. Since the first two columns and the last two columns have less space between them than the center two columns, we perceive two groups of two columns.

Continuity

The principle of continuity predicts the preference for continuous figures.

As seen in the above example, we perceive the figure as two crossed lines instead of 4 lines meeting at the center.

Gestalt Principles:

Figure | Ground

The terms figure and ground explain how we use elements of the scene which are similar in appearance and shape and group them together as a whole. Similar elements (figure) are contrasted with dissimilar elements (ground) to give the impression of a whole.

Look carefully at the M.C. Escher print to the left. Do you see the white horses and riders? Now look for the black horses and riders! Escher often designed art which played around with figure and ground in interesting ways. Look at how figure and ground interchange in this print.

Gestalt Principles:

Closure | Area | Symmetry

Closure

The principle of closure applies when we tend to see complete figures even when part of the information is missing. We see three black circles covered by a white triangle, even through it could just as easily be three incomplete circles joined together. Our minds react to patterns that are familiar, even though we often receive incomplete information. It is speculated this is a survival instinct, allowing us to complete the form of a predator even with incomplete information.

Even though the circle to the left is not joined together, we still perceive a circle due to the principle of closure.

Area

The principle of area states that the smaller of two overlapping figures is perceived as figure while the larger is regarded as ground. We perceive the smaller square to be a shape on top of the other figure, as opposed to a hole in the larger shape. We can reverse this perception by using shading to get our message across, as seen below.

On a white background, this looks like a box with a hole in it.

Symmetry

The principle of symmetry describes the instance where the whole of a figure is perceived diamonds, or three objects, a small diamond and two irregular objects above and below it? If you are perceiving according to the principle of symmetry, you will probably see two diamonds overlapping.

Examples: